3/8

It is quite late but I didn't want to forget any of the details of today so here goes: (note no spell check or editing so please dont view this as a reflection of my writing abilities)

We started of the day at camp Majdanek. Thihs is a concentration camp where 70,000 Jews were killed. One of the first things that was pointed out was that there was a main road that passed along the front of the camp. It has been that way since before the war, so people drove by the camp and saw what was going on and still did nothing. The Nazis placed the camp so close to the road to serve as a warning to Polish non-jews in order to prevent rebellion. This camp is one of the most upsetting because many of the original structures are still standing so it provides a real sense of what the camps were like. We entered and went into the room where women's heads were shaved and they were showered. Interesting to note that the chemical that was used to disinfect clothing (typhus was spread in the ghettos) was later used in gas chambers, though at the beginning of the war carbon dioxide was the chemical of choice. But, this is not a death camp so people actually received showers when they arrived. The next cabin we entered was lined with crates of shoes..exactly 1,000,000 shoes. Quite an impressive/disturbing sight. We were told to pick a shoe and make up a story about the individual who had owned the garment. The assignment forced us to imagine the lives of the people who had to endure this atrocity and it made it a much more emotional experience (though just entering the camp was pretty upsetting). We then went into one of the cabins. Bunk beds were stacked so there were four beds one on top of the other and we were told two people would share each bed. The head boards could slide up and down so if someone had their head hanging over or feet (because most were too tall for the bed) a guard could come around and slam the head board down on their neck or feet....even at night people were not safe at Majdanek. In the cabin we were told a horrific story about a 10 year old boy named Bubbee (sounds similar to the name for grandmother). The Nazis took a liking to this young boy and made him a sort of little patrol..Bubbee's parents let him go to the Nazis because they believed it would save his life. Well, this child became a terror..he would eat cherries in front of starving prisoners and would force people who had dysentery to bend down to look at him at eye level. This position would indicate to the ailing person that they should go to the bathroom but because they were in the presence of a child they would hold it in and end up writing on the ground in pain at which point Bubbee would spit on them and kick them. Well, the Nazis decided to make him a German citizen and his parents agreed, again feeling that this would protect the boy. So the ceremony began and all of the men and women of the camp were called to meet in the field. There stood a post with two nooses and Bubbee's parents were instructed to put their heads through the ropes. Then the boy was told that to be a citizen he would have to hang his parents. He did. (yes i nearly was sick when I heard this story)

So, moving on in the camp we headed to the crematorium. When we walked in there was a giant urn that had a sign that basically said ashes from Majdonek..I was surprised that it was so small because 70,000 bodies would seem to take up space (this inclination on my part was correct but continue reading). Anyways, in the room with the ovens we were told the following: 1. the german guard used the heat from the furnace to heat his bath which was located in the corner of the room so he could enjoy the view 2. the bodies were so emaciated that 3 could fit in each oven at a time and 3. This story: A news reporter traveled to a displacement camp following the war and was awoken by a man screaming "I burned them, I burned them myself with my own two hands." Startled, the reporter asked another individual why the man was screaming? To which the person replied: that man is a jew who worked in the crematorium and was responsible for placing the bodies of his wife and his daughter in the fire. Well, after this unpleasant story I was ready to get out of there as quickly as humanly possible. We walked outside and to what I thought was a memorial built in soviet Russian style (large concrete dome). I walked up the stairs to the dome and saw that there was a pile of dirt inside. It wasnt dirt. It was 7 TONS of ash and bone from the crematorium that had been dug up after the war.

I would use this opportunity to reflect on all that I saw and learned at Majdonek but there is really not much to say. It was terrible, upsetting, and even though I have told you almost everything that I experienced there I still cannot put into words how upsetting actually seeing this place was. My feet were freezing and I was in two layers of socks and wearing boots. The prisoners went barefoot in the winter. The amount of suffering that they endured is not something I could even imagine. After only 3 hours of being outside on this tour I was ready to head back to the bus. I am grateful that my tour guide told stories about individuals because when you hear numbers like 3,000,000 jews killed or 70,000,000 killed in this camp it sounds like a statistic-just a number. It finally hit me today that each jew that was killed was someone's mother father sister brother grandparent. These families were destroyed. I could not help but to think of my own family and I imagined us in this situation (there was a lot of crying today). I have never been so grateful that we are all together and I don't think this is something I will ever be able to take for granted again.